Experimental study on seismic performance of crumb rubber aeolian sand concrete columns

To mitigate environmental hazards resulting from waste tires and desertification, this study aims to investigate the seismic damage behavior of crumb rubber and aeolian sand for concrete columns. Pseudo-static testing was performed on four concrete columns with the same geometric dimensions: conventional concrete columns, aeolian sand concrete (ASC) columns, crumb rubber concrete (CRC) columns, and crumb rubber aeolian sand concrete (CRASC) columns. The mixed control of load and displacement methods was utilized. The resulting damage phenomena, hysteresis curves, skeleton curves, stiffness degradation, ductility, and other seismic performance indicators for each specimen were compared and analyzed. The damage evaluation model was established based on the principle of energy dissipation, followed by damage analysis of the specimens. Subsequently, the CRASC column was simulated and verified using ABAQUS finite element software. Experimental results confirmed that the introduction of crumb rubber enhances the deformation capacity of the concrete columns, but at the same time reduces the load-bearing capacity of the concrete columns. Similarly, adding a moderate amount of aeolian sand can enhance the stiffness of concrete columns. The CRASC columns have better energy dissipation and ductility capacity. Furthermore, the analysis of damages showed that the addition of appropriate amount of crumb rubber and aeolian sand effectively mitigates the damage in the specimens, and this damage model better reflects the extent of damage in each specimen. The simulation analysis yielded results that were generally consistent with the experimental findings from the finite element analysis. Concrete members made of crumb rubber and aeolian sand have good seismic performance, which provides a new idea for improving the seismic resilience of building structures.